Category: Life in Japan

Sunday night I went with friends to Kusatsu, a small, famous hot springs town about two and a half hours from Nagano by car. We left Nagano at 9pm and arrived at half past eleven. Many of the public baths are open all night, and we wanted to be there when the crowds weren’t.

In the center of town, there is a huge spring where much of the hot water gushes out of the ground and is piped to baths in various sections of town. The area has been tastefully built up with boardwalks and waterfalls, so it looks very picturesque.

The public bath we went to was small, but the water was steaming hot and it felt great — not a fancy bath, just utilitarian. We arrived back in Nagano around 3am.

Yes, it’s true. Americans are loud. And nowhere is that more noticeable than in Japan.
I spent a summer in Germany during high school, and I can clearly remember my first moment of shame at being in any way connected to America. It was on a bus that was filled with the inane booming of an older American couple who were oblivious to their surroundings and to the effect they were having on every other passenger on the bus. And Germans aren’t shrinking violets.

Here in Japan, I’m constantly amazed at how loud Westerners can be, and in the most inappropriate situations. (To be fair, it’s not only Americans — many Canadians, Brits and Aussies can crank up the volume, especially after a few drinks.) Several other foreign teachers live nearby, and there are many nights were I can hear one or more approaching from more than a block away. The neighbors can’t be happy.

In a country as outwardly obsessive about safety as Japan, it’s interesting to hear stories of life on the edge. In recent weeks students have described festivals with elements of danger.

One such festival took place a couple weeks ago in Kishiwada-shi, near Osaka. The highlight of the Danjiri Festival is a high-speed “parade” of intricately-carved, incredibly beautiful wooden floats, which are pulled through the streets by dozens of men via long ropes. At intersections, the teams must execute 90 degree turns, while still racing along at high speed. All the while, a man is balancing on top of the float as if riding a surfboard. This is the honored position of daiku-gata. Every year, my students tell me, people are killed during this parade, usually during a crash or when the daiku-gata is flung from the top of the float during a turn. And this year, with two deaths, was no exception.

Closer to Nagano, a festival last Saturday featured almost two hours of low-level fireworks. One student who attended described two hours of rushing from one viewing location to another to escape burning embers falling from the sky. Local fire authorities were on hand to extinguish the many trees that caught on fire. I’m sorry to have missed this one.

Danger, as with so many other things here, is acceptable in the appropriate situation and circumstance.

Another glorious three-day weekend, and I’m getting out of town. I’ll be hiking and camping for all three days in the mountains northwest of Nagano.

For some fun, try running this page through the AltaVista translation engine. Sample translation:

You will securely take moisture replenishment. The dehydration and the thermal spasm et cetera it is seen. It is the carelessness powerful enemy.

Nothing like hearing that a small country prone to earthquakes can’t maintain nuclear reactors correctly. What happens when the big earthquake hits?

Things are not good these days when it comes to safety at Japan’s nuclear power plants:

The reports of safety lapses, fraudulent repairs and cover-ups at Japan’s largest nuclear power company began with a trickle but have resounded into an industry nightmare.
The details, filled in over the last two weeks by one alarming report after another, show a potentially catastrophic pattern of cost-cutting along with 16 years of cover-ups of serious flaws, apparently in an effort to preserve public trust. The pattern includes the systematic falsification of inspection and repair records at 13 reactors at the company, Tokyo Electric, the world’s largest private electrical utility.

(From Antipixel, my favorite blog.)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a historic visit to North Korea today. During his one-day visit, North Korea finally admitted that it had abducted at least 11 Japanese nationals, and reported that only four of the 11 are still alive.

North Korea has also been accused of kidnapping thousands of South Koreans over the years.